Egypt says to boost gas deliveries to Jordan

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) — Egypt's prime minister says his country will boost deliveries of natural gas to Jordan, which had seen supplies dwindle since Egypt's uprising nearly two years ago.

Hesham Kandil told reporters after talks with his Jordanian counterpart Thursday that Egypt would pump between 190 to 210 million cubic feet of gas per day, almost three times the daily amount delivered in recent months.

Jordan has depended on Egyptian gas to generate 80 percent of its electricity, but supplies were interrupted over a dozen times by militants attacking pipelines since February 2011. In the meantime it was forced to use diesel and heavy fuel to run national power plants, boosting costs by $4.2 million a day.